Briefs

By Alice Lipowicz, Contributing Writer, GCN, 11/15/06

The Homeland Security Department�s Science & Technology Directorate�s data mining prototype is receiving in-depth scrutiny from the department�s inspector general.

The DHS IG plans to review the Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement, or Advise, program, over the next several months to determine how well it is meeting its goals in identifying potential threats, according to the IG�s just-released fiscal 2007 Annual Performance Plan.

The $40 million program is designed to extract terrorist threat information from large amounts of data. It and other data mining programs are criticized by privacy advocates because they sift through large amounts of personal information.

The upcoming evaluation is one of dozens of oversight investigations � many of them for IT programs at DHS � that the IG will conduct during the current fiscal year under the 94-page annual plan. Program areas to be reviewed include information security, information-sharing, acquisition programs, disaster management, logistics programs, threat assessments and data mining.

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